“Maybe.” Todd wrung his hands. “But I woke up to find her pen empty. I’m not sure how long she’s been gone. Could have been all night!”
“Okay, we need to look for her then,” Pippa offered. “She can’t have got far.” But then she remembered the speed at which Juniper had raced around the garden yesterday and she shot Wolfie a look, hoping he’d see the concern in her eyes. It was entirely possible Juniper had travelled quite a long distance with such a head start.
“Thank you,” Todd accepted. “Pat’s checking the roads. I’ll try the southern perimeter, but maybe you could check north?”
Pippa grimaced. “And north would be…?”
Wolfie, the former soldier, stepped in. “That way.” He pointed downwards, towards the maze and to the moors beyond.
“Juniper loves a good rootle!” Todd called after them as they hurried off. “Look for disturbed earth!”
“Copy that!” Wolfie shouted back. He lowered his voice. “You promise this beast isn’t vicious?”
Pippa laughed. “My experience of Miss Juniper is that, whilst she is feisty, she isn’t aggressive.”
“Got it.” Wolfie didn’t look convinced, however. It took merely a few seconds to see that Juniper hadn’t ventured into the chaotic tangle of the maze, so they decided to head out to the open moorland. Wolfie led Pippa to the bottom of the garden where a high wall separated the Squires’s property from the moors. A heavily cobwebbed and rusty door barely visible amidst the ivy creeping across the wall led directly onto a small trail that soon split off into various directions. They stopped and looked around. No Juniper in sight. Wolfie huffed. “Where do we think this pig will be then?”
Pippa thought. “Todd said she likes to rootle, which means … soft soil, right?”
Wolfie shrugged. “She’ll not find too much of that here.” He stubbed the ground with his foot. “Ground is rock solid.” But then his face brightened. “There is a little stream over that way.” He pointed right, down a gentle heathered slope. “Maybe the ground will be to her liking there?”
“That’s sound logic,” Pippa said. “Let’s try.”
It didn’t take long to traverse the slope. The air was sweet with the smell of heather and warm earth. A gentle breeze ruffled their hair. Soon the merry sound of trickling water became audible and, sure enough, they came across a sliver of a brook wending its way across the land. The ground was boggier and softer here, but there was no sign of a pig.
“Damn!” Pippa said. “Now what? Should we follow the water?”
“I think we need to put ourselves in the mind of a pig,” Wolfie said in all seriousness. “Ask ourselves, what is Juniper’s motivation?”
“Her motivation?” Pippa repeated in bemusement.
“You know. Food. Safety. Shade.” He closed his eyes in apparent concentration and rubbed his temples as if trying to read Juniper’s mind. “Where would I go, if I were Juniper?”
“Are you really trying to be at one with a pig?” Pippa asked.
“Well, someone has todosomething,” he deadpanned, but his mouth twitched.
“You’re so weird when you want to be,” Pippa said. She’d never seen this silly side of his humour before, and it looked good on him. “But seriously, where else might she go?”
Wolfie stopped still, rubbing his head. He looked around, thinking. “There’s a little patch of birch trees further along,” he said. “If we follow the stream this way, we’ll find them. Probably all sorts of goodies there for a pig like that.” He started walking and Pippa scurried to keep up.
“You really know your way around,” Pippa said as they walked beside the stream. “Is that from all your running?”
“I suppose,” Wolfie said. “But even as a child I’d spend all my time out here. Running, climbing, daydreaming. Anything to get away from my dad.” He jammed his hands in his pockets. “I’m sure you got drilled on the dangers of the moors as a child, but I’ve always felt safe out here, then and now.”
Pippa looked at him in surprise. “I had no idea.”
He smiled down at her. “What, that I like the great outdoors?”
“No.” She had to watch her step as the ground was a little marshy. “That there’s at least one thing you like about this part of the world.”
“I’m not a total monster,” he said. “Oh, mind that bit.” He pointed to a boggy patch, and they skirted it. “Look, there are the trees.” He nodded ahead to where a cluster of birches huddled against the exposed moor. “Mind if I ask a question?”
Pippa gulped, her cheeks heating. She hadn’t expected an interrogation. “If you’d like.”
“Whydoyou love this town so much?” he asked. “You keep banging on about how special it is, and how Squires is the heart of it…” He shrugged. “Help me understand.”
Pippa allowed the gentle breeze to cool her flaming cheeks. In all her years living in Hurst Bridge, she’d never had to clarify why she loved the town so much and being asked left her feeling raw. But something told her that Wolfie was exactly the person she should talk to about this. “I told you about my uncle, didn’t I?”
